Friday, December 31, 2010

Mama told me there'd be days like this...

It seems that Casey is hitting a new milestone. And it ain't a good one. Often, I have heard it referred to as the.. terrible two's. On a recent trip to SD, Casey had a complete meltdown on two separate occasions. We were visiting some friends and there were some other kids there. These kids were a little older, I'm guessing in the 5-6 yr old range. I'm not sure how it started, but all of a sudden I hear Casey crying/screaming... Turns out, he wanted to play with a certain truck toy. A few minutes later, one of the older kids comes over to Casey and hands him said truck. Casey immediately calmed down.

Now, as I said, I don't know the details of what previously transpired. Was Casey playing with the truck, and this kid comes and takes it from him? Was the truck this kids' favorite toy and Casey wanted to play with it? Did Casey just not want to share the toy?

I also don't know the reason the kid ultimately came over and handed Casey the toy. Did his parents ask him to do it? Did his parents bribe him to do it? Did he get sick of hearing Casey scream and cry? Or maybe he was just being a nice kid... In any case, everyone within a 1000' radius was happy with the result. It saved all our eardrums...

The next day, we were visiting some other friends. We take Casey on a tour of the house, and we find the playroom. And it was stocked with toys.. Cars and trucks to be specific. Casey latches onto a big rig truck and starts carrying it all over the house. At some point, we were going to have to leave.. and I saw a potential problem brewing.. Sure enough, when it was time to go, Casey had a death grip on the truck, and was wailing.. Just as daddy pried the truck from Casey's fingers, the host graciously offered to give Casey the truck. Ever focusing on the big picture, I declined her generous offer. My thought is that it sets a bad precedence. If we give in every time Casey pitches a fit...

So, to everyone at that party, "I'm sorry about the horrible screaming and crying" I'd imagine they were all rooting for me to "Just take the damn truck"

Terrible two's huh? This is gonna be interesting... Stay tuned.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Round 1

Last night, I was coming from work. Before I even parked the car in the garage, I can hear Casey crying, screaming, wailing... I'm in my car, pulling into the garage, and he's inside the house, and its LOUD.

So, I go find out what's happening. I'm thinking, is he hurt? Did his baby brother pop out of Mommy's belly 6 weeks early? What could possibly cause that torrent of tears and wailing.. I get in the house and ask him... In between sobs and slurping of snot, he says, 'Books'... To make a long story short, Mommy and Casey were having a battle of wills. They were getting ready to go 'bye-bye' (go outside for a walk) and Casey wanted to carry two of his books with him. Mommy was trying to compromise, and said he could take one book. He kept insisting on taking two, so Mommy said fine, then we aren't going outside.

I just got done with a long day at work, I'm sick, so I figure I'll take Casey out. I get him (re)dressed, and carry him out of the house. He starts crying, I figure once we get outside and he sees some of his favorite sights, (pool, hottub, trees decorated with Christmas lights) he'll forget about the damn books...

Um, not so much. I carried him FAR, and he's bawling the whole time. I set him down, and he RUNS all the way home. I figured 'screw it' whats the harm in letting him lug two books around. So, I get his books for him, and he settles down. BOTH books in hand; Daddy and Casey proceed to have a good time outside.

I got to thinking about the whole scene, and realized this whole meltdown episode was over taking two books instead of one book to carry while going outside. I also realized my kid is really stubborn, and sometimes unreasonable. Hmmm, wonder where he got that from.

In the opening round of undoubtedly many battle of wills, Casey's will outdid Daddy's. So, did I set a bad precedent, or am I just choosing my battles?

Monday, December 13, 2010

Choreographed by Casey

One morning, we are hanging around the house, and Casey invented a new game as he watched himself in the mirrored closet doors. He choreographed this whole thing... and everyone had a blast! Notice, part of the way through, he signs 'MORE'.



Games with Casey from p wang on Vimeo.

Christmas Fireworks

This being Los Angeles and all; Manhattan Beach, Ca has a tradition of shooting off fireworks off the pier, over the ocean. They are called Christmas fireworks, and they have this annual show in mid-December. Yesterday, Dec. 12th, it was about 80 degrees during the day. We took Casey to Redondo Beach in the morning, and he ran around in the sand, and 'chased' the surf. Of course, he isn't as fast as the waves and eventually, he got soaked. After a warm shower with Daddy, and lunch, Casey settled in for a well deserved nap.

Following his nap, we partook in the Manhattan Beach fireworks festivities. The outing started at the fire department where the firefighters put on a spaghetti feed. Since Casey LOVES 'pa-ta' (pasta) and fire trucks ( I cant even pronunciate his words for fire truck), we figured this would be a cool experience for him. In order to accommodate all the people for the feed, they move all their fire trucks out of the station, and set up long tables and tons of chairs. Then, its just like one huge feeding trough. Trudge thru a line, they pile tons of spaghetti on a plate, and you sit and graze.. Kinda reminds me of the dorms or prison. Yes, I've experienced ONE of these two... We sat Casey on Mommy's lap and he was slurping 'pa-ta'.. But his attention was on the parmesan cheese container. All he kept saying was 'cheese'. We had complete strangers sneaking the cheese containers under the table, so Casey wouldn't spot it, and fixate on it! We got thru the meal without making too much of a mess.

Next, it was off to Betty and Larry's house to watch the fireworks. There is some saying about location, location, location.. Well, that saying is appropriate for this occasion. Their house is right on the boardwalk, a great viewing spot for Casey to check out chicks... err, I mean fireworks over the pier... I don't know if it was chicks, or the ocean, or what that caught his attention, but Casey would make a beeline for the exit and take off up and down the boardwalk. He must have done this for about 45 minutes straight. He was good about it; he never ventured far, only 15 feet or so in each direction, and each time, he would run back onto the porch... only to turn around and take off again.

Then, the fireworks started. Casey was mesmerized by the display. Based on his reactions to the 4th of July fireworks (July 4th Fireworks)and this show, I'd say he digs fireworks!

Family Pix

There were so many nice photos from the photoshoot, I broke them up into a few different posts. These are family pix, which capture some of the actions we share with Casey regularly.







Friday, December 3, 2010

Drinking from the toilet

Casey decided to try something new this morning. For quite a while now he would watch us go pee, see us flush, and say bye bye pee pee. Then he would open the toilet lid and say pee pee then close the lid. No harm, no foul. Today he decided to open the lid say pee pee then "aqua" (water) and proceed to dip is fingers in it and put them in his mouth and say "mmmm". I'm kinda speechless. I mean, that's nasty, right? Guess it could have been worse. At least, it was flushed.. Is there such thing as clean toilet water?

And to think, one year in college, me and my roommates made a pact; we weren't going to flush the toilet EVER, to see if we could pee enough to make the liquid flow out of the bowl. To this day, I still don't know who chickened out and couldn't handle the stench of stale pee... and flushed.

I guess I have lots to teach my little guy. Don't drink from the crapper. Don't eat the yellow snow. Don't pee INTO the wind...

Oh yeah, and if you ever see a cabin on fire, peeing on it with your best friend WON'T put out the fire. Trust me, daddy knows best.

Photoshoot Continued

Despite his fascination with vacuum cleaners, we were able tear his attention away from them long enough to capture some other nice shots.

Priceless expressions!